


What Our Souls Would Give Us

by VoiceOfDoomCalling



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anakin Skywalker Has Issues, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Jango Fett Needs a Hug, M/M, Minor Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker, Not Canon Compliant, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Padmé Amidala Needs a Hug, Padmé does some stupid stuff, Padmé's handmaidens - Freeform, Possessive Behavior, it's one-sided
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26592208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoiceOfDoomCalling/pseuds/VoiceOfDoomCalling
Summary: She has warnings painted all across her back, while they have conflict, yet more importantly hope on their arms. It changes things.
Relationships: Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Padmé Amidala & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala & Sabé, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, maybe
Comments: 6
Kudos: 135





	1. Tethered to Him

The first string appears when he’s born, it’s the only one that he doesn’t force. It’s gossamer white for only a moment before turning a platonic pale yellow. 

It connects his left index finger to his mother’s.

Shmi understands it immediately, as she smiles through tears that nearly blind her of the sight. The thread is one of two that she has, but the other—white for now, stretches off into the distance forgotten in that moment. There and now, her entire world is condensed down to the little screaming bundle she cradles in her arms.

When Anakin is nine, he unknowingly forces a connection when he meets Padme. It’s a clean white turning into a pale pink when he asks her if she’s an angel. _I want her in my life_ he thinks innocently, _I want her to stay with me._

He tugs at her with a power he doesn’t understand and can’t control and a string forms between them connecting their left hands’ fourth fingers together.

Then he meets Obi-Wan, and it’s white to pink between their left middle fingers, while Anakin shakes the young man’s hand and thinks, _he could be an angel too_. This time he purposely tugs, because Obi-Wan is just as beautiful as Padme, and he _knows_ somehow that the man is just as kind too. How could he not want him? Then so much happens, he helps save the day by _flying_ , but it’s not enough, Qui-Gon Jinn dies. Leaving the floor to vanish out from beneath him as his future becomes uncertain, but then Obi-wan is there. And he promises to train him, the string connecting them turns an unreliable yellow.

It flashes pink sometimes, he swears, but never tells.

It’s years before he sees Padme again, but during that time he sees the string connecting them remains steadily pink. Then they see each other again, and he goes with her to Naboo and it isn’t long before the pink begins deepen in color.

It’s something like a dream being there with her, the string between him and Obi-Wan stays yellow, no brief flashes of pink. Everything is wonderful, until it’s not.

The string that connects him to his mother begins to tremble and fray, he follows it to Tatooine, Padme in tow. And there it breaks and fades away, while he clutches her in his arms, too damn late to save her.

When he tells Padme why it broke and what he did in response…She tells him, “To be angry is to be human.”

Dark pink flows into dark red.

He’s certain that means the string between Obi-wan and him will remain yellow, it doesn’t. As soon as they are no longer Padawan and Master, it tosses and turns between yellow and _red_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The colors of Anakin’s strings reflect what his relationship with them is or rather what he wants them to be.   
> Pink – infatuation  
> Yellow – familial love  
> Red - passionate love


	2. Cautionary Marks on Her Back

For years, Padmé shows no sign of a soulmate. No songs whispers at the back of her mind, no letters sprawl across her skin, no images to tie her to other soul(s). Nothing. The romantic in her that loved the story of how her two fathers and mother met, that loved to pour over books of two or more souls coming to find each other against all odds, grieved heavily. The pragmatic part of her pushes on, having a soulmate had never been her sole dream.

She wants to lead, to make a difference, and to preserve the peace on Naboo. She pours all her energy into that, until Padmé Naberrie becomes Padmé Amidala.

Then she has her handmaidens and they have her, and she realizes that she doesn’t need a mark to find lasting love.

All of them whisper late into the nights of her early leadership, and are quick to understand each other. It’s Sabé that brings up the topic of soulmates, and it’s to plan something that most of Naboo would frown upon. A soulmark of their own, that they choose.

They choose a cluster of Little Bell flowers, blue bell-shaped flowers, inked on the back of their ankles.

_Constancy_

_Gratitude_

_Thinking of you_

The first two, the foundations of their relationships, and the latter a promise.

The romantic and the pragmatic sides of Padmé reconcile peacefully, and ideas of romance are shelved at the back of her mind. Not forgotten, but certainly not prevalent.

Then her planet—her home comes under attack.

Out of the nine that share Little Bell flowers with her, only three escape with her: Sabé, Eirtaé, and Rabé.

Padmé fears for the others so keenly, that her chest tightens into an inescapable knot and her vision blurs. Eirtaé, and Rabé guard the door, while Sabé tugs her hands into her own, and whispers fiercely, “they’re _strong_.”

Padmé inhales sharply and nods, _even_ if they all perished. They would not want her to think of them and weep. They would want her to draw strength from them. “And so are _we_.” Padmé whispers back, meeting Sabé’s ferocity.

Sabé nods with a smile that’s all teeth, squeezing her hands tightly briefly, before letting go, and rising. In the Queen’s garb, she is breathtaking, and Padmé privately thinks she looks far more regal than she ever could.

“Are you an angel?” A little boy of Tatooine asks.

“What?” She asks, amused, even as she thinks of her handmaidens.

He explains angels, his circumstances, telling her firmly that he is a person. He is sweet and brave, and even as Tatooine’s suns beat down on them, the heat doesn’t burn away the enjoyment she finds in talking to him. Or the resolve she finds to make sure that he is freed one day. Though his company doesn’t hide the way the skin of her back crawls with what feels like a dozen needles.

It isn’t until much later, when she’s back with Sabé, Eirtaé, and Rabé on the ship that it’s discovered that her entire back is covered in plants.

“Who is it?” Sabé asks, and her voice is off. Flat and cold.

Padmé is deaf to it, as she stares in astonishment behind her at the mirror Rabé holds up to her back, so she can see her _soulmark_ in all its glory.

An explosion of plant life, some she recognizes from Naboo, others completely and utterly alien to her. Her heart flutters widely, plants that weren’t foreign often meant you would come to find them—to see them with your own eyes.

“Padmé,” Sabé insists “Who is it?”

“I think it’s Anakin.” Padmé delighted and absorbing the sight of all the plants, still doesn’t notice the fear, the _anger_ in her friend’s voice.

Her attention is ingulfed at the sight of the Allium, one of Naboo’s most famous flowers. Her cheeks flush red at the sight of it. It takes up the most space, it’s long stem stretching from the bottom of her back to the top of her nape, where the pink globular flower rests.

_You’re Perfect_

_My soulmate will come to think so much of me_ , she thinks, not hearing how her friends whisper frantically at the sight of another plant. One known across the galaxy.

The infamous Atropa.

_Warning_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I got a new flower dictionary recently. And wow, there are few flowers that have just one symbolic meaning attached to them. So, if you see a flower you recognize and you’re like “Wait a minute! That’s not right!” That’s why, and I’m going to acknowledge it eventually in the story. :)  
> Flowers mentioned:  
> Allium, also known as an Onion Flower – You’re perfect  
> Atropa, also known as Deadly Nightshade – Warning  
> Little Bell, also known as Bellflower – Constancy, Gratitude, and Thinking of you.  
> Next chapter: Jango’s turn. :D


End file.
